St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-07

| Une treasury may enter the market ana
| purchase the bonds of the government
! not yet due at a rate of premium to be
agreed upon. The only provision of
law from which such power could be
| derived is found in an appropriation
| bill passed a number of years ago; and
it is subject to the suspicion that it was
intended as temporary and limited in
its application, instead of comforting
/ continuing discretion and authority. No
condition ought to exist which would
| justify the grant of power to a single
! official, upon his judgment of its neces-
! sity. to withhold from or release to the
business of the people, in an unusual
manner, money held in the treasury,
and thus affect, at his will, the financial
situation of the country; and
IF 1T Is DEEMED WISE
to lodge in the secretary of the treasury
| the authority in the present juncture to
purchase bonds, it should be plainly
vested, and provided as far as possible
with such checks and limitations as will
define this official right and discretion,
and at the same time relieve him from
undue responsibility. In considering
the question Of purchasing bonds as a
| means of restoring to circulation the
surplus money accumulating in the
| treasury, it should be borne in mind that
premiums must of course be paid upon
such purchase, that there may be a
large part of these bonds held as invest
ments which cannot be purchased at
any price, and that combinations among
! holders who are willing to sell may un-
reasonably enhance the cost of such
bonds to the government. 1t has been
suggested that the present bonded debt
might be refunded at a less rate of in
terest, and the difference between the
old and new security paid in cash, thus
| finding use for the surplus in the treas
ury. The success of this plan, it is ap-
parent, must depend upon the volitiOn
of the holders of the present bonds: and
it is not entirely certain that the induce
ment which must be offered them would
result in more financial benefit to the
government than the purchase of bonds,
while the latter proposition would re-
duce the principal of the debt by actual
payment instead of extending it. The
proposition to deposit the money held
by the government in banks throughout
the country for use by the people is, it
seems to me, exceedingly Objectionable
in principle, as establishing too close
relationship between the operations of
the government treasury and the buSi-
ness OF the country, and too extensive
cOmmingling of their money, thus foster
ing an unnatural reliance in private
business upon public funds. If this
scheme should be adopted it should only
be done as a temporary eXpedient to
meet an urgent necessity. Legislative
and executive efforts should generally
be in the opposite direction, and should
have tendency to divorce, as much and
as fast as can safely be done, the treas
ury department from private enterprise.
Of course it is not expected that unnec-
eSSary and eXtraVagant appropriations
will be made for the purpose of avoid
ing the accumulation of an excess of
revenue. Such expenditure, beside the
decentralization of all just conceptions of
public duty which it entails, stimulates
habit of
RECKLESS TIPROvIDENCE .....
not in the least consistent with the mis-
sion of our people or the high and bene
fetal purposes of our government. |
have deemed it my duty to thus bring to
the knowledge of my cOuntrymen, as
well as to the attention of their repre-
SentativeS charged with the response
bility of legislative relief, the gravity of
our financial situation. The failure of
the congress heretofore to provide
against the dangers which it was quite
evident the very nature of the difficulty
must necessarily produce, caused con-
ditiOn of financial distress and appre-
henSion since your last adjournment,
which taxed to the utmost all the
authority and eXpedients within ex-
ecutive control, and these appear now
to be exhausted. If disaster results
from the continued inactiOn of congress,
the responsibility must rest where it
belongs. Though the situation thus
far considered is fraught with danger
which should be fully recognized, and
though it presents features OF wrong to
the people as well as peril to the coun-
try, it is but result growing
out of a perfectly palpable
and apparent cause, constantly
reproducing the same alarming circum-
StanceS-a cOngeSted national treasury
and depleted monetary condition in
the business of the country. 1t need
hardly by stated that while the present
situation demands remedy, we can
only be saved from a like predicament
in the future by the removal of its
cause. Our scheme of taxation, by
means of which this needless surplus is
taken from the people and put into the
public treasury, consists of tariff or
duty levied upon .impOrtatiOns from
abroad and internal revenue taxes levied
upon the consumption of tobacco and
spirituOuS and malt liquors. 1t must be
conceded that none of the things sub
jected TO internal revenue taxation are,
strictly speaking, necesSarieS; there ap-
pears to be no just complaint Of this
taxation by the consumers of these
articles, and there seems to be nothing
SO well able to bear the burden without
hardship to any portion of the people.
But our present tariff laws, the vicious,
ineQuitable and illegal source of
UNNECESSARY TAXATION,
ought to be at once revised and
amended. These laws, as their primary
and plain effect. raise the price to con-
SumerS of all articles imported and sub
ject to duty by precisely the sum paid
for such duties. Thus the amount of
the duty measures the tax paid by those
who purchase for use these imported
articles. Many of these things, how
ever, are raised or manufactured in our
own country, and the duties now levied
upon foreign goods and products are
called protection to these home manu-
facturers, because they render it posi-
ble for those of our people who are man
ufacturerS to make these taxed articles
and sell them for price equal to that
demanded for the imported goods that
have paid customs duty. So it happens
that while comparatively few use the
imported articles, millions of our people,
who never use and never saw any of
the foreign products, purchase and use
things of the same kind made in this
country, aud pay therefor nearly or
quite the same charged price which the
duty adds to the imported articles.
Those who buy imports pay the duty
charged thereon into the public treas
ury, but the great majority of our citi-
Zens, who buy domestic articles of the
same class. pay sum at least approx
mately equal to this duty to the home
manufacturer. This reference to the
operation of our tariff laws is not made
by way of instruction, but in order that
we may be constantly reminded of the